The Lost Goddess

This quirky novel from the pseudonymous Knox (British journalist Sean Thomas) combines elements of the best of several genres, shakes them up, then lays them out in surprisingly original patterns. In an isolated cave in southern France, archeologist Julia Kerrigan discovers neolithic skeletons, the skulls of which show evidence of trepanation, holes deliberately bored in the middle of the foreheads. Meanwhile in Laos, photographer Jake Thurby and a beautiful Cambodian woman from Phnom Penh, Chemda Tek, are chasing a story with origins in the mysterious Plain of Jars. Subplots involve human and chimpanzee interbreeding, the horrific depredations of the Khmer Rouge, the Ice Age cave paintings of Lascaux, Khmer voodoo, mummified fetuses, and a plan by the Chinese to develop a super soldier. Along the way, Knox (The Genesis Secret) doles out enough tantalizing scientific, social, and spiritual lore to sate even the hungriest anthropological thriller reader. Agent: Jay Mandel. (Jan.)